466 THE PARKS AND GARDENS OP PARIS. [Chap. XXVI. 



Mutual Aid Society among these market-gardeners. To give an 

 example of the way they work, I have merely to state that when 

 a body of provincial cultivators were almost ruined by inunda- 

 tions, the Paris society sent them more than 1200 lbs. weight of 

 seeds to begin again with. Generally they seem independent, 

 and are said to accumulate money, and often to retire compara- 

 tively early in life from active work. Few will doubt that it is 

 better to have a large class of small proprietors in a thrifty and 

 independent, though humble condition, than one individual with 

 many acres, and every soul employed by him without anything to 

 call his own. 



The opinion prevails widely in England that the smaller the 

 holding the worse the culture. It may be so in some cases ; 

 very small holdings and very high culture are the rule around 

 Paris. The owners are certainly as hard-working and, apparently, 

 as poor as any independent workers can well be, but they appear 

 to gain, at least, as good a livelihood as the farmers who try to cul- 

 tivate a hundred or more acres in the best parts of Canada. This 

 Paris market-gardening is, however, so essentially peculiar and 

 special that it would be unsafe to deduce any broad conclusions 

 from it alone. The culture in the open fields round Paris is far 

 inferior, and very imperfect. Hence, the vegetables raised in that 

 way are inferior to those seen in the London market. In and 

 near Paris one rarely sees much variety in one garden ; the ten- 

 dency is to special culture. Thus, one whole town and its environs 

 is devoted to Asparagus, another district to Garden-turnip culture. 

 Mushrooms form a speciality, and even the forcing of Asparagus 

 is sometimes made the main effort of a life. One may look in 

 vain in any of these gardens for either Ehubarb or Seakale. It is 

 odd to reflect how slowly and curiously ideas sometimes travel. 

 In the deserts of Utah, in the garden of a Mormon elder ; or, 

 farther still, away on the coast range of the Pacific in a Californian 

 garden, Pie-plant (Ehubarb) and Seakale are as well known as the 

 Potato. Cross the English Channel, and we find a land where 

 they are seen no more, except, perhaps, in very rare cases as 

 curiosities. 



According to some figures quoted by M. Joly before the Central 

 Horticultural Society of France, and taken from the records of their 

 Custom House, the total quantity of fruits exported to England, 



